Embarkation day was finally here. We met Ursula and Doug in the Ibis hotel lobby at 10:45pm and ordered a large cab to share for our trip to the Singapore Cruise Centre which is located beside the VivoCity Shopping Center which is Singapore's largest shopping mall. This terminal is located across the small bay from Sentosa which is a resort island containing a casino, Universal Studios Singapore, and a number of other tourist activities. There's even a gondola that passed over the ship and connected up with another gondola to Mt. Faber.
The cruise terminal itself is among the largest we've seen in our travels. While there only appeared to be docking space for a couple of ships, inside the terminal there was all manner of shops, food vendors including the Golden Arches, Pizza Hut and local vendors. There was a very nice electronics store and I purchased a 3800 milliamp camera battery. It's got 4 times the capacity of most of my present batteries.
Check-in was relatively fast and efficient as we were earlier than the bulk of the embarkees. However, the slowdown came when it was time to pass through Singaporean immigration. That took well over 1/2 hour in a queue. We later learned that we have to pass through Singaporean immigration whenever we leave the ship. There's no shortcut for "In Transit" passengers as we find in most other countries. Once onboard we were pleased to hear Bruce's voice on the PA system. Bruce is the Cruise Director for this voyage and he was the CD for our last year's Asia voyage and a prior Zaandam cruise to Antarctica. We really like him as a CD and a person.
We found our stateroom and deposited our carryon luggage. It wasn't long before our checked luggage showed up and we were able to begin unpacking. The bathroom in this stateroom had been refurbished with new floor and wall treatments, and the countertop/sink and faucet appeared to be new. Also, the shower is new and quite nice.
Afterwards we made our way to the front office to drop off my paperwork for our Komodo Island trip. All information for independent tours for Komodo Island must be submitted to the front desk in advance. From there we went to the Mariner reception in the Crow's Nest where we met the Hotel Director and mingled with other guests.
Every sailing has to have a mandatory muster drill to acquaint passengers with the evacuation and safety procedures. Ours was held promptly at 3:15pm for all newly embarked guests. HAL takes this very seriously and all passengers have to have their room key cards scanned to establish attendence at the drill. Following the drill we found our way back to the Crow's Nest where I watched our disembarkation. At this port, the ship backed away from the slip, the captain then rotated it 180ยบ, and proceeded out of the very congested harbor into a pretty significant rain squall.
I was able to be the first one of us to do some shopping in the ship's stores. I found a pair of swimming trunks to replace the ones I forgot to bring.
We didn't want to change clothes, so we elected to enjoy a steak dinner in the LIDO which has been totally refreshed with new table tops, carpet, chairs, and other furnishings. Every HAL cruise has a Main Stage show the first night called "Listen to the Music" where the CD, Bruce in this case, introduces the entertainment staff and a few of the other key staff. We were pleasantly surprised to see that Jeremy and Phil, EXC specialists (shore excursion and location information people) were also on this cruise. They were on our 2017 Asia cruise and were superb. After the show we were able to reacquaint ourselves with Bruce, Jeremy, and Phil, and they remembered us.
The movie in the Wajang Theatre was Viceroy's House, a story about the transfer of power from England to India and Pakistan. We ended up watching the first part before the Listen to the Music event, and we watched the second part after that event. It was very good.
Midnight found us finally back at our room where my wife found a surprise Valentine's Day card that I had carried all the way from home. I think I scored a few points. Tomorrow is a welcome sea day, and we'll see what that brings. Stay tuned.
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